by Nikki Duncan
Clutching her in his arms, listening to the soundtrack of her heart and her ragged breathing, he turned circles. Ideas and scenarios streamed through his head lightning quick and mixed with the terror he’d felt at ten. He’d been able to see then. He’d known where he was and how to get out. Now, the way he’d come was blocked. He didn’t know of another exit. They would burn together.
The screeching hiss of the flames was awful. The smoke grew thicker by the second, flames hissed viciously as they climbed the walls and ceilings, eating everything in their path. They would devour him and Kieralyn. Melt the skin from their bones.
No! He would save her that hell. He would save her even if it meant he lived without her.
He buried his face in Kieralyn’s neck and breathed deep. The smell of his soap coating her skin soothed him. Focused him. The only thing that mattered in this moment was her.
Ian stopped turning circles and told the frightened little boy inside to shut the hell up. He’d survived a fire. He’d found his way out of the swamp during one of his training sessions. He could get them out of here.
He took tentative steps forward, again leading with his feet though it was more difficult with Kieralyn in his arms. He bumped into a hot metal table. He steadied his balance and lifted his foot to get the feel of the table. His foot hit what seemed to be a bottom shelf. He shoved at the table, but it was either too weighted down with equipment or dishes or it was mounted to the floor.
To his left, a solid wall of flames from the fallen wood blocked him and grew hotter. He turned right and edged along the table. Another few careful feet away, the space opened up. The space to walk around. The table was the main work center. Fire hadn’t reached this far into the room yet, but the temperature was climbing more with every second.
He coughed. Kieralyn wheezed. The smoke was taking a toll on their lungs.
He sidestepped left to check for another opening, but bumped into a fiery hot metal table. Was it L-shaped? U-shaped? Damn it! He was running out of time.
A pipe popped maybe three feet behind him to the right. A high pitched whistle followed. His heart stalled for several agonizing seconds before kicking into overdrive.
Shit! He’d heard that whistle before. He was out of time. Any second now the gas fumes from the busted pipe would hit the flames. They were too close to avoid being hit by the explosion. They wouldn’t survive.
“Ian!”
He leaned his head to the right. Had he really heard…
“Ian!” His father was urging him on. Why had Kieralyn’s team let him go? “Hurry up. Keep going straight.”
“H-how…” Smoke slid down his throat, coating his lungs. He couldn’t get enough breath to yell. If he was hallucinating, he only hoped it led him to an escape.
“Come on, son. Five more steps then turn left.”
Ian counted the steps like he had when he was younger and learning where the furniture was. Odd, he counted all the time now, but never seemed to notice doing it.
“Good. About three more feet. There’s a door.”
The air was mixed with a cool breeze and waves of heat. The door opened to outside and the flames were reaching for the fresh oxygen. The gas would do the same thing.
The whistle intensified. Ian hurried. If he didn’t get out before the explosion, he could at least be close enough to the door that the momentum might shove them outside rather than trap them against a wall.
He took two more steps. Two sets of hands grabbed his arms and hauled him outside. The explosion shook the building. Fire surged out the door and caught at his shirt. Someone smacked it out a moment before he collapsed with Kieralyn still in his arms.
Chapter Ten
Kieralyn wiggled her legs but couldn’t move. Shit! Had something worse than she remembered happened?
“Hey. Look who’s awake.”
Her muscles tensed as she eased her burning eyes open to see how bad off she was. Liam sprawled across the end of her bed grinning at her. His weight crushing her feet to the mattress explained the paralyzed sensation. She sank back into her pillows with a sigh.
Aidan and Tyler slumped together in the corner on the floor. They supported each other against the wall and snored lightly. The curtain was pulled so it blocked the top half of the other bed. Feet tented the thin blankets.
A bouquet of balloons and cookies sat on the roll-away table with a card stuck between the support sticks.
She looked around the darkened room but didn’t see Breck. Lights lit up the city beyond her window. Maybe he’d gone home to get some sleep. And Ian, where was Ian?
“Breck’s off tormenting the nurses and doctors since you haven’t been awake to do it.”
Not Ian.
She returned her gaze to Liam’s deep brown, concern-filled one. A surge of emotion grabbed her throat and threatened to strangle her. They’d stayed at her side, waiting for her to wake up. They’d worried about her.
“You—” She coughed violently and grasped for the water beside her bed. She sipped slowly. The act of swallowing ached. “Comfy, Liam?”
“As a bug.” He winked, but sat up.
Needlelike pain engulfed her feet when blood rushed back to them. She gasped, which sent her into another fit of coughing.
“Sorry, K.” Liam ducked his head sheepishly and rubbed her feet. “Didn’t think about putting your feet to sleep.”
“It’s all right.” She kept her voice to a low whisper and rubbed her chest, hoping to minimize the coughing. She sounded raspy, as if she’d spent the last twenty-eight years sucking down two packs of cigarettes a day. “How long have you guys been here?”
“Since we brought you in yesterday morning.”
She replayed what she could remember from the club. El Dogo’s eyes—Ian’s eyes—were one of her last memories. He’d knocked her out. She’d come to consciousness long enough to hear Ian calling for her. To see him coming toward her with flames at his back. “Was it Ian who pulled me out? Do I remember that right?”
“Yeah.” Liam chuckled. “Surprising man. He stood there with a death grip on his father’s throat, demanding to know where you were. Then he surged through those flames like a seasoned firefighter.” Liam angled his head toward the bouquet. “He brought that by. Made us promise not to eat the cookies.”
“That was nice of him.” And like him to not do the typical flowers. A cough vibrated her chest. “The women. Lana. Did you get them out?”
“The five at the club and Lana are accounted for. We found records of past sales. Those women are being tracked down and will be brought home. The bad guys are either dead or behind bars.” He held the cup of water to her lips again and narrowed his eyes with chastisement. “You should have told us about Lana. Who she was and why she sent you the information.”
“I couldn’t tell you. Breck would have kicked me off the case. Is she safe?”
“Maybe.” Breck spoke from the other side of the sheet as he pushed it back. “Lana is enjoying the effects of sleeping pills, but will be just fine.”
Lana’s long blond hair fanned out over the pillow of the bed beside her. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Long story short, she didn’t realize El Dogo had been her source on her story. She rushed him when he went into the room with your gun.”
If she’d listened and waited for her team, Lana wouldn’t have been shot with her gun and she wouldn’t have been trapped in the fire. Ian wouldn’t have had to face another inferno. No one would be in the hospital right now. Then again, they might not have saved the women.
Kieralyn swallowed and held her silence as her team leader approached her bed. Anger pinched Breck’s face, hardened his lips. He was going to kick her off the team before she was out of the hospital bed. Great.
“You were too close to the case. It led you to taking foolish risks.”
Going in without them. “I only went over to jiggle some wires loose to keep the van from starting. I was going to head back to the car and wait for
you.” She forgot to whisper. More coughing gripped her. Liam grabbed a tissue and handed it to her. She wiped away smoke and soot residue.
“You should have waited. You could have followed them if they moved the women.”
“Which would have put the women at risk if we’d been spotted tailing them. Besides, with the van disabled all the men were forced to stay in the same spot.”
“Without someone who could see what was going on, it was a foolish move.”
“There is nothing wrong with Ian Cabrera.” She lurched up. “He functions just as well as you do with your sight.”
Throbbing agony sliced through her head. She groaned as she eased back down and gave in to another fit of coughing. Being sick sucked.
Liam handed her a cup of ice chips. “You scared the shit out of us.”
“Cabrera was the one who dragged you out of the fire a second before the kitchen exploded.” Breck grabbed her hand and smiled the first warm smile she’d seen aimed at her. “How could we argue that he’s not a superhero?”
“Batman,” Liam smirked.
She gave a small cough as she studied Breck and Liam. They were sincere. They liked Ian. More importantly, they liked her. And not out of sympathy that she’d almost died.
She studied the men filling her room. They hadn’t left her. They’d given him a nickname, and they didn’t do that lightly. Her throat grew thick with happiness. They’d called her K when she’d rarely been anything other than Beckett.
Tears pooled in her eyes. The saltiness stung her dry eyes, but she didn’t care. They’d liked her all along. Cared for her.
It was like Ian had said when he’d blasted her about her shortcomings. She hadn’t allowed herself to see affection from others. To believe it when she glimpsed it. “I’m sorry I’ve been an albatross for you.”
“You’re a woman.” Liam winked. “It’s your job.”
She opened her mouth to retort back to him, but decided the pain of coughing wasn’t worth it. What she’d regarded as chauvinism had been their brand of humor and caring. It was their way of baiting her into fights, and she’d played along beautifully.
“I’m sorry I risked so much. That I didn’t wait for you.” She shrugged. “I guess I knew that between Ian and you guys backing me up that everything would be all right.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Tyler smirked as he shoved Aidan’s head off his shoulder and got up. “Next time, wait for us anyway.”
“Is there going to be a next time?” She glanced to Breck, holding her breath for a second. “Are you keeping me on the team?”
He glanced at the men around her. She followed his gaze and studied each one. Another thing she’d missed. She’d always viewed Breck as the leader, and based on seniority he was, but this was a team in every way. Her fate rested in all of their hands.
She swallowed and waited. Sweat broke out on her palms. Her heart pounded. Her arm hairs vibrated. She fought the urge to close her eyes and pray. To beg and plead and make them whatever promises they wanted to hear.
Aidan got to his feet and walked to the foot of her bed. He stooped down for a second before moving to her side.
“Oh, just put her out of her misery,” Lana squeaked sleepily from her bed.
“You stay out of this.” Aidan narrowed his gaze at Lana. “Troublemaker.”
“Make me.” But she leaned back against her pillow and closed her eyes.
Aidan turned and met Kieralyn’s eyes as he took her hand in one of his. With a small smile, he placed her badge in her palm. “Welcome to the team, Agent Kieralyn Beckett. Though from now on we’re calling you Albie for Albatross.”
Tears swelled in her eyes. She choked them down and grinned. She had to look like a loon, but she didn’t care. She belonged with these guys. They’d accepted her. Hell, they respected her.
Pain squeezed her heart. Her smile slipped away. She had everything she’d been looking for. She hadn’t realized what would be missing even once she found it.
“You realize that in college I minored in psychology.”
Ian rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Dante’s persistent presence in the lab. He hadn’t slept in days, kept checking his phone for missed calls and was fighting exhaustion. The last thing he needed was more dramatics.
“I don’t need those classes to know that you’re avoiding the situation.”
Ian focused on the recording he was analyzing. It might be cowardly, but he wanted to ignore the truth that his friend was trying to make him see.
“Ian, he’s been pacing the lobby for over an hour.”
He’d worked with Dante for five years. They’d become pretty good friends. Dante knew as much about the disappearance of his father as Ian did. He didn’t know the circumstances of his sudden reappearance. Or why Ian had left him waiting in the lobby.
“I’m working, Dante.”
“No.” He moved farther into the lab. “You’re playing that same section of track over and over. You aren’t actually analyzing it, because your head is out in the lobby.”
No. Ian’s head was with his heart in another building across town. “You’re wrong.”
“You want to think I am.” Dante tapped the desktop with his blunt fingertips before turning back toward the door. “You have one minute to get your shit together before I send him in.”
“I’ll fire you.”
Dante laughed. “You won’t. No one else will put up with you.”
A truth that unfortunately held true for Kieralyn as well.
“Oh, and if you care, Agent Beckett was released from the hospital this morning. She’ll be taking a few more days off to recover.”
Dante closed the door behind him. Ian dropped his head to the cool marble desk and fought to shove down the sorrow that had been tugging at his chest for the past three days. He’d checked on Kieralyn several times over the last few days. Thanks to cowardice he’d only gone well after visitation hours when he knew she would be sleeping.
He’d never believed in love at first sight, or love at first heartbeat, as the case may be. Something about Kieralyn had arrested his attention from the moment she’d set foot in his lab.
Every second in her company had revealed another layer of her and she’d kept him intrigued even while she’d tried to pull away. She’d shown him that people could still be passionate about their jobs, and she was well suited for hers. He’d had fun with her and relaxed. He’d forgotten the freedom in sharing someone else’s company.
The door latch clicked. He straightened in his chair and braced himself for whatever his father had to say. Despite everything he’d heard in the last few days, he still ached to believe that his dad’s moral compass had stayed true over the years.
“Ian.”
He stood and turned. “Dad.”
His father stepped across the threshold of the still-open door.
“Did you agree to see me, or did Dante force this on you?”
Ian had taken an ecstatic call from his mother. Gushing about his dad’s return, she hadn’t noticed Ian’s reservations. His sister had been more cautiously excited, but she hadn’t understood Ian’s hesitation to celebrate. He couldn’t have told them what he’d found his father mixed up in even if he’d had it in him. “Does it matter?”
His dad sighed heavily as if any hope he’d had of a reconciliation had deflated. Good. Ian needed to know there was nothing but truth between them.
“I’d hoped that you would trust in what I taught you as a kid.”
“You mean that morals and behavior define a man? Or that family is the most important thing he should hold on to?”
“Both.” The hard soles of his dad’s dress shoes smacked the floor as he walked over and leaned up against the desk. He’d always seemed comfortable wherever he’d been. “I thought you of all people would have understood what I was doing.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Ian shook his head and slumped against the desk opposite his father. “For two yea
rs, I watched Mom doubt her beliefs. Were you dead? Had you changed into a man she’d never know again? Maybe you’d been leading a double life and discovered a preference for the other one. I listened to the sadness in Mom’s voice every time I talked to her.”
“I told you before I left that I was working a case.”
“Yeah. And I heard you on the phone before you vanished. You were going to do something drastic. Apparently that meant disappearing to join a kidnapping and slavery ring.”
“You should have asked about that.” He shoved away from the desk and paced. “Damn it. I never wanted you to worry.”
“Maybe you forgot, but that’s what family does.” Ian reached behind him and punched a button to turn off the looping recording he’d forgotten about. He rubbed his gritty eyes. “I get that you were working a case. I know it dealt with terrorism, but I fail to see how that has anything to do with selling women into slavery.”
“I tried to get them to go with a different plan.” Distaste slurred his father’s voice. “They were certain that taking women who mattered to influential Miami officials would ensure them leniency with their plans.”
“You should have tried harder to veer them down a different path.” Though if he had, Ian wouldn’t have met Kieralyn. Pain stabbed deep at the thought of her. Maybe that would have been best.
“The best I could do was keep tabs on the women and ensure they were not harmed. It’s taken me this long to get high enough in the organization and find the proof I needed to bring down the head guy.”
“And you couldn’t tip your hand to him.” Ian remembered his tactics training. He’d never agreed with some of the methods, but he knew what they were.
“More lives than those of the women taken were at risk.”
“It’s all for the greater good.” His father hadn’t traded sides. He hadn’t betrayed his family or his country. Why was he still fighting the excitement that his dad had returned? That he was still apparently the same man he’d been when he left?
“Ian, I know that you understand why I made the choices I did.” Mick stopped pacing and stood right in front of Ian. “Just as I understand why you got involved in the first place with something as seemingly small scale as a series of kidnappings.”
